New York’s transit worker union endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday.
“We all know in this room that you don’t have a great and growing middle class unless you have a great and growing trade union,” Sanders said at the union hall.
The Transport Workers Union Local 100 represents 38,000 workers and an additional 26,000 retirees. The union voted nearly unanimously in their endorsement of the Vermont senator, The New York Daily News reports.
Sanders has previously been endorsed by the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 190,000 workers. He has been pushing a $1 trillion infrastructure invest plan.
“Our infrastructure is crumbling,” Sanders said Wednesday. “We need the best mass transportation system in the world. It is essential to our economy.”
Union president John Samuelsen said, “Brothers and sisters, there is no doubt that America needs a jolt, New York a jolt, working families need a jolt, and business as usual politics are not going to give us the jolt that we need.”
New York’s primary is on April 19, and Sanders is attempting to beat Hillary Clinton in the state she represented in the Senate. It would be his eighth win a row and is a must-win in his quest for the nomination. Clinton currently leads by 14 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average.